Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Shortage fuels warehouse demand
A “shrinking availability” of larger warehouses and firms’ perusal of greener operations is affecting demand in the South West industrial and logistics commercial property market, analysis has found.
Despite an uncertain outlook for real estate and the wider economy, the resilience of the regional market has “held firm” according to Avison Young.
A total of 36 deals for units were completed in Bristol during the third quarter. The report found these transactions mostly consisted of multi-let properties and a handful of smaller mid-boxes, with only three deals for units of more than 50,000 sq ft.
Take-up across the South West region during Q3 came to 514,465 sq ft, compared to a five year Q3 average of 256,175 sq ft.
Avison Young said a lack of ‘big box’ availability was continuing to hinder take-up in Bristol, causing “a wall of occupiers” unable to find what they require.
James Short, senior surveyor at Avison Young in Bristol, said: “Although national takeup levels year to date have fallen short of 2021’s total – 40.28 million sq ft – this has been driven not by the current economic climate but by a chronically undersupplied market.
“Availability of grade A space across the UK stands at 24 million sq ft, equating to only two months’ worth of supply based on demand of the last three years.”
Developer Equation Properties has recently begun work on site at the Matrix49 project at Avonmouth, which is speculatively building out 130,000, 170,000 and 235,000 sq ft units.